| EkChhin
:
MS-Nepal Newsletter
2004 Issue
1 |
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Our
husbands are abroad
so we help each other
Women and children make up the majority of the population in
Baglung Municipality, ward no. 5. Among all of the 19 households
in the village only four old men are left. The rest of the men in
the village work in Arab countries, India or Malaysia. The
treasurer of Deurali Mahila Samuha is Jamuna Kisan who lives with
her two sons and one daughter. Her husband is in Assam, India and
will stay there for two years. The separation is however easier
for her to manage now, compared to what it would have been like,
before she joined the woman group supported by Dhaulagiri
Community Resource Development Centre (DCRDC).
“Before establishing the group we did not cooperate with each
other and mostly stayed in our homes. Our husbands would like us
to stay at home and did not like the idea of us gathering in
meetings. But soon they also discovered the benefits from us
participating in the group. We help each other and look after one
another when somebody is sick or pregnant,”she says.
Besides having made a social security net the 13 women have set up
a revolving fund of 2600 rupees. This money can be given to
members who are in special need in the time of delivery or when
someone in the family dies.
The fund is given for either one or two months and the receiver
does not have to pay any interest. Jamuna Kisan explains how her
sister-in-law took this favorable loan: “She took the loan because
she was about to give birth to her child and her husband was
abroad. She bought ghee and meat and other good foods which are
necessary for a mother’s health after giving birth. two months
later she returned the loan when her husband sent money to her.”
From an emergency fund from DCRDC the group received 1000 rupees.
In order to improve the facilities in times of emergency the group
decided to spend the money on equipment for everybody to use. They
bought an emergency light and, on their own, they made a bucket
and a stretcher to carry sick people down the road for treatment
in Baglung. The members of the group use the facilities for free
but other villagers have to pay an amount of 20 rupees per trip.
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